JNN News Update April 14, 2017

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PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY DEFIES USA, WILL RAISE PAYMENTS TO SUICIDE BOMBERS' FAMILIES: In defiance of the USA, which is demanding that the Palestinian Authority completely stop financial rewards to families of terrorist “Martyrs” (Shahids), the PA is now raising the payments to the “Martyrs'” families. These PA payments include lifetime monthly allowances to families of suicide bombers, and other murderers who were killed during or after committing their crimes. After years of international condemnation of the PA, the United States Congress recently proposed The Taylor Force Act to cut off financial aid to the Palestinian Authority because of these payments to terrorists and their families. When Taylor Force, an American citizen, was murdered last year in Tel Aviv, American legislators were incensed to learn that the family members of the dead terrorist would be rewarded with lifetime payments - thus benefiting from American financial aid. Similar legislation was proposed in the Israeli parliament last month, to deduct the equivalent amount that the PA pays to terrorists and their families from the tax revenues that Israel collects on the PA’s behalf. The fallacy and the fantasy of the peace process fiction writers and the two-staters continue to explode in the face of reality and the religious motive behind the jihad against the Jews. (Geller Report) Intercede that this defiant move on the part of the Palestinian Authority will be severely penalized by withdrawal of all financial aid that comes from Western governments and their taxpayers.

PEACE NOT ON RADICAL ISLAM’S AGENDA: While absence of war is the dream of Western civilization, some creeds and religions are more interested in conquest and rule than they are in neighborly co-operation. While not giving up the dream of peace, it seems important to face the fact that Islamists do not have peace in mind in their ideologies and strategies concerning Israel or the West. Such peace, in fact, conflicts with the very root doctrines and laws of Islam: Sharia law, according to Islam, is the legal code ordained by Allah for all mankind. To violate Sharia or not to accept its authority is to commit rebellion against Allah, which Allah's faithful are required to combat. There is no separation between the religious and the political in Islam; rather Islam and Sharia constitute a comprehensive means of ordering society at every level. The stoning of adulterers, execution of apostates and blasphemers, subjugation of women, repression of other religions, and a mandatory hostility toward non-Islamic nations punctuated by regular warfare is the norm. Islamists have stated their hate ideologies and destructive goals loud and clear, privately and publicly. They have underscored their intentions toward Israel and the West with blood, suicide and the sacrifice of their own children to such creeds. Anyone who wishes to deny or even debate these statements must willfully blind and deafen themselves to the quotes, history, actions and patterns of a great bulk of Islamic representatives whether they be religious, political, military, or educational. (JNN) Intercede that Israel’s national leaders will never be coerced again into starting a false peace process with those who attempt to delude no one in their ultimate intentions to destroy the Jewish state. Israel has been pressured time and again by global entities into submitting to building freezes and the release of terrorist prisoners serving time in Israel jails - just to get the game of pretend peace going once again. May we not have to go around this mountain of lies once again.

NEW BOARD GAME IN GAZA BASED ON SNAKES AND LADDERS SEEKS TO ‘STRENGTHEN LOVE OF JIHAD’: A new board game called “Reaching Jerusalem” has been launched in Gaza, the goal of which is “to strengthen the love of jihad among children,” according to the founder of the game. The game is essentially a remake of the classic children’s game “Snakes and Ladders.” The objective is for players to advance on squares until they reach Jerusalem. The "ladders" that bring the players closer to the finish line are tunnels and Hamas-manufactured rockets, whereas the "snakes" that hinder their progress are IDF tanks and helicopters. The board is sprinkled with illustrations of Hamas fighters lying in wait for the enemy, attacking, and crawling through tunnels. During the course of the game, players stop off in cities found within the 1948 borders of Israel recognized by the UN, such as Tiberias, Ashdod, Akko, Haifa, Yaffo and Tzfat, where Arabs as well as Jews lived before the founding of Israel in 1948 and to where many of them demand to return and succeed in eliminating the Jewish presence.

Muhammad Ramadan Al-Amriti, who works at the Hamas Interior Ministry said, “The game 'Reaching Jerusalem' is an important component in the correct upbringing of our children in the near future. We created this game so that children do not forget their cities of origin, and also in order to strengthen the children's love of jihad. The goal of the game is to teach children that return to the homeland will be achieved only through resistance and jihad." He said that another purpose of the game is to help produce future leaders and decision-makers raised on the principles of the Islamic faith. 10,000 copies of the game have already been made, soon to be available in stores. (INN) “Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their ways.” Isa. 59: 6-8

PIERS MORGAN: ISIS WAR ON CHRISTIANITY ‘OUGHT TO BE DOMINATING CABLE NEWS’: Well known British journalist and television personality Piers Morgan, on 10 April 2017 criticized the American media for paying more attention to isolated terrorist attacks in Europe while ignoring the ISIS ongoing war on Christianity in the Middle East. Morgan lamented that “a handful of people being killed” in recent terrorist attacks in Stockholm and London have gotten “huge attention” in America, while coverage of suicide bombings on two Coptic Christian churches that killed dozens in Egypt on Palm Sunday 2017 appeared to be an afterthought. “And yet, what happened in Egypt was unbelievably significant,” Morgan said. “If you look at what ISIS really stands for, what they are carrying out now in the Middle East and in Egypt in particular, is a genocidal attack on Christians. They want Christianity eradicated, and they want to convert all Muslims to their crusade,” he said. “They want it to be a holy war. And they want Christians gone. And I don’t think that narrative is getting the attention it should get in the American media and, I have to say, in other media as well around the world.” (Washington Times) Urgent is the need for ongoing intercession for the plight of persecuted Christians in Islamist countries. Please pray for their cause to be taken up by the nations in terms of granting aid, justice and protection. Intercede for courage and comfort to be granted to those who suffer.

TRUMP: VLADIMIR PUTIN IS BACKING A TRULY ‘EVIL’ PERSON IN BASHAR ASSAD: “Putin is backing a person that’s truly an evil person and I think it’s very bad for Russia. I think it’s very bad for mankind,” USA President Trump said in a 12 April 2017 interview on Fox Business Network. “It’s very bad for this world. I think aligning yourself with Assad is a big mistake because he’s a butcher, and I think it’s very bad for Russia,” he said. “We’re not going into Syria, but I see people using horrible, horrible chemical weapons - which they agreed not to use under the Obama administration - but they violated it,” Trump said. “What I did should have been done by the Obama administration a long time before I did it. I think Syria would be a lot better off right now than it has been,” said Trump. (Washington Times)

REX TILLERSON: ASSAD ERA IS COMING TO AN END: USA Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on 11 April 2017, stated that Russia can either join the USA, or continue to side with Syrian President Assad, his Iranian allies, and terrorist group, Hezbollah. Tillerson said at a meeting of G-7 foreign ministers in Lucca, Italy, "We want to relieve the suffering of the Syrian people. Chemical weapons stockpiles and their continued use demonstrate that Russia has failed in its responsibility to deliver on its 2013 commitment. It is unclear whether Russia failed to take this obligation seriously or has been incompetent, but this distinction doesn't much matter to the dead." Speaking about the future, Tillerson said, "Russia can be a part of that future and play an important role. Or Russia can maintain its alliance with this group, which is not going to serve Russia’s interests longer-term. It is clear to all of us that the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end. But the question of how it ends, and the transition itself, could be very important to the durability and stability inside of a unified Syria. That’s why we are not presupposing how that occurs," he added. Attending the G-7 conference were foreign ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the United States, as well as Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Vladimir Putin said the following day that trust had eroded between the USA and Russia under President Trump, as Moscow delivered an unusually hostile reception to Secretary of State Tillerson in a face-off over Syria. Russian hopes that the Trump administration would herald less confrontational relations were reportedly dashed last week after the USA President ordered missiles to be fired at Syria to punish Moscow's ally for its use of poison gas. (INN/Reuters)

RUSSIA KNEW OF SYRIAN CHEMICAL ATTACK IN ADVANCE: A senior USA official, who demanded anonymity says the USA has concluded that Russia knew in advance of Syria's chemical weapons attack last week. The source says a Russian-operated drone flew over a hospital in Syria as victims of the attack were rushing to get treatment. Hours after the drone left, a Russian-made fighter jet bombed the hospital in what American officials believe was an attempt to cover up the usage of chemical weapons. Until 10 April 2017, USA officials had said they weren't sure if the drone was operated by Russia or Syria. The senior government source said it still wasn't clear who was flying the jet that bombed the hospital. He claimed that the presence of the drone couldn't have been a coincidence, and that Russia must have known the chemical weapons attack was coming and that victims were seeking treatment. (Fox)

A SWEDISH START-UP HAS STARTED IMPLANTING MICROCHIPS INTO ITS EMPLOYEES: Swedish startup hub Epicenter routinely offers to implant its workers and startup members with microchips the size of grains of rice that function as swipe cards: to open doors, operate printers, or buy smoothies with a wave of the hand. Ben Libberton, a microbiologist at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, says hackers could conceivably gain huge swathes of information from embedded microchips. The ethical dilemmas will become bigger the more sophisticated the microchips become. "The data that you could possibly get from a chip that is embedded in your body is a lot different from the data that you can get from a smartphone," he says. "Conceptually you could get data about your health, you could get data about your whereabouts, how often you're working, how long you're working, if you're taking toilet breaks and things like that." Libberton said that if such data is collected, the big question remains of what happens to it, who uses it, and for what purpose. So far, Epicenter's group of cyborgs doesn't seem too concerned. The implants have become so popular that Epicenter workers stage monthly events where attendees have the option of being "chipped" for free. "You can do airline fares with it, you can also go to your local gym, so it basically replaces a lot of things you have other communication devices for, whether it be credit cards, or keys, or things like that. Chips can also be programmed to hold contact information and talk to smartphone apps," said Epicenter co-founder Patrick Mesterton. (CNBC)

The suggestions, opinions and scripture references made by JNN writers and editors are based on the best information received.

The Messianic Times has become the leading international Messianic Jewish newspaper since its inception in 1990. Started as a quarterly publication, it is now published six times per year by Times of The Messiah Ministries. It includes news from the worldwide Messianic community, Israeli current events and analysis, opinion pieces, book and music and film reviews, informative articles and a directory of Messianic Jewish congregations.